This invention relates to the operation, control and coordination of energy collectors within an energy park.
Wind energy collectors, the various flavors of solar and ocean surface energy collectors, as well as ocean current collectors, are generally grouped together in parks that can extend many hundreds of square miles, or cubic miles in the case of current collectors. Currently the individual collectors within these parks function as independent entities and sophisticated and expensive sensors (e.g. wind turbine lidars to sense local wind conditions) are proposed to provide each collector with a detailed sense of its locale in order to improve its response to or to keep itself safe from a changing environment.
The viability of an energy collector is generally measured by its energy cost ($/kW-hr). The hardware and maintenance cost of the collector are driving forces. Greater instrumentation increases hardware and maintenance cost with the argument that the information provided makes for a more efficient collector that avoids damage from its environment. For example, the wind turbine lidar, such as that manufactured by Catch the Wind Inc., claims greater wind speed information for improved turbine control and efficiency, recognition of dangerous wind gusts, and for reduced stress loads.
An image that comes to mind is that of medieval armies having a few expensively armored and highly trained knights mounted on armored war horses, but relying on a multitude of lightly armored and barely trained infantry at ground level having little visibility. The knights can see far and wheel and charge with an overview of the battlefield; the infantry sees almost nothing but senses the battle flow from the actions of neighboring fighters. Only a few knights are afforded, but many infantry.
Accordingly, this invention is a means to build an infantry of energy collectors while avoiding the need for knights. Environmental conditions are generally not isolated to a specific collector but have a larger spatial extent and gradually affect a swath of collectors. Each affected collector responds to and senses its local environment, and a sharing of spatially correlated information among such collectors is informative of the greater park environment and is used to anticipate local conditions without the need for expensive instrumentation.